Resources: Building With SIPs

In Building With Structural Insulated
Panels (Taunton Press, 2000, $34.95),
author Michael Morley likens stickbuilt
construction to the folk hero John
Henry and structural insulated panels
(SIPs) to the steam drill. You may recall
that John Henry hammered his fool
self to death trying to compete with the
steam drill. Morley predicts that the
days of conventionally framed homes
are likewise numbered.
He reminds us that SIPs are faster to
install and structurally superior, that
they are more energy conserving, environmentally
friendly, and cost competitive,
and he says they are about to take
the light-frame construction industry
by storm. Despite his admission that
SIPs have been around for 50 years and
hold a meager 0.05% of the market, he
believes